One Way Ticket
by Rosmarina
Summary: Judges' Pick for the 'A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words' contest. Unrequited love, an unexpected letter and a one-way bus ticket.


**A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words Contest**

**Title:** One Way Ticket

**Your pen name:** Rosmarina

**Inspirational photo number:** photo #5

**To view the photos for this contest visit: http://i618(DOT)/albums/tt268/Rosalynn7885/contestcollage(DOT)png**

**Rating:** M

**Summary: **Unrequited love, an unexpected letter and a one-way bus ticket.

**If you would like to see all the stories that are a part of this contest visit:** **http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/community/a_picture_is_worth_a_1000_words_contest/76199/**

* * *

I didn't know what would happen when I saw Bella Swan again. All I knew for certain was that I had a $139 one-way bus ticket to Phoenix, and I was going to find out.

I'd been in love with her for years. I couldn't say exactly when it happened, just that one day I finally admitted to myself that I was in love with my best friend's girl, and there wasn't shit I could do about it. Except keep it to myself.

_Edward, I can't help but feel that all this time  
I should have been dating someone like you instead._

That's what her letter said.

I'd just finished finals when I spied that envelope in my mailbox. Her letter said a lot of things. She and Jake had broken up for good. He'd gone back to Forks but she stayed in Phoenix. She hoped I was doing well at UW.

But this is what I read again and again:

…_all this time…_

…_should have… _

…_someone like you…_

_~*~*~*~_

In high school the three of us had been inseparable. We left Forks for UW together the fall after graduation. Jake and I shared a dorm room and though Bella had her own room, she slept in Jake's bed nearly every night.

I wanted her in mine. The two of them meant everything to me, but my jealousy was a silent cancer.

I tried to date other girls, to move on. Really, I did. I was lonely, and it was just too fucking hard to be their third wheel all the time. But no other girl compared to Bella. She was my ideal.

After freshman year the three of us returned to Forks for the summer. In July, Jake went on a month-long fishing trip down in Oregon with his Dad. I spent every free minute with Bella, like some surrogate boyfriend. My skin prickled with electricity whenever she was near. Casual touches lingered a little too long. I imagined something charged building between us.

The last Saturday night before Jake was due home we were watching SNL on the floor of my parent's dark living room. We lay on our sides, Bella just in front of me, sharing a cushion. Three inches closer and we would be spooning.

I pretended to watch TV, but all I could think about was closing that gap between us. I brushed my fingers against her bare leg. _I'm so in love with you_, I wanted to say. _It hurts so goddamn much not to tell you._

I traced a small sensuous design on the skin of her thigh with my fingertip, testing and cautious. Hinting. She kept her eyes on the screen, but I felt her shiver.

"Cold?" I whispered against her ear.

"No," she said, but she shivered again. I pulled a blanket off the sofa, wrapping it around us both and laying my hand on her hip.

_I can't fucking stand this. I've got to touch you._ I traced my pattern up over the swell of her hip to the exposed skin at the dip of her waist. She drew a deep breath. I continued my design, brushing soft lines across her belly, drawing circles and eights. The muscles there fluttered under my fingers. I dipped them under the waistband of her shorts and paused.

I was asking her to stop me.

She didn't.

My fingers found the button of her shorts, and I flicked it open by feel even though my hand was trembling. Bella panted softly.

"I don't want to hurt Jake."

"I know," I breathed. "I don't either... I just need… touch you… _please_." I waited silently for her decision, ghosting my fingertips over her flesh.

"Just... no kissing... okay?" she whimpered.

The TV was still on, but Bella's eyes were closed tightly. The sound and light from the TV, the blanket, and the darkness of the room created a little bubble of suspended time. For this moment, I could pretend she was mine. No one was guilty or betrayed.

Pressing my forehead to Bella's shoulder, I snuck my hand into her panties. I could feel how her body wanted this, wanted me. I had memorized every muffled sound of passion and pleasure she had made in Jake's bed when they thought I was asleep. I set about seducing those sounds from her with my fingers. Her textures and whimpers were my map to her treasure. When she sobbed her climax softly into her palm, my heart clenched with desperate joy. _Bella… Bella…_

The clock struck 2am and broke the spell. I hugged Bella goodnight at the door, and I didn't want to let her go. She patted me awkwardly on the back.

Bella avoided me the next few days. Jake returned home, and I never got a chance to see or speak to her alone after that night. By the end of summer, Bella had convinced Jake to transfer to the University of Phoenix with her, and just like that they were both gone.

~*~*~*~

She left me that September, and I assumed she hadn't looked back. For nearly ten months my heart was dust in my chest until her letter arrived.

Smoothing the paper against my thigh, I read it again - someone _like_ me, or _me_?

I had an apartment and a summer job lined up. I didn't give a damn about either of them now.

I paced my room all that night. Just after dawn I bummed a ride to the Greyhound station and bought a ticket. I stowed my army surplus duffle bag and my guitar case under the bus. Her letter was tucked into the breast pocket of my coat, burning a hole in my chest.

I didn't have a plan, but I did have thirty-nine hours and 1,640 miles on a bus. I had her letter. I had hope and determination and nothing to lose but the heart she had already broken. I had a one-way ticket taking me straight to Bella Swan.


End file.
